The shift lever in this Vette will, next year, command eight ratios instead of six. That is all.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

It’s a bit of an open secret that Chevrolet plans to eventually add more gears to the Corvette Stingray‘s optional automatic transmission, but now we’ve got confirmation that the sports car is getting two more forward ratios next year. An SAE paper detailing GM’s new eight-speed automatic transmission—and mentions the Corvette by name—recently hit the web, dredged up by the sleuths over at Automobile. Besides confirming the general when and what, the SAE paper also was loaded with technical details, although SAE won’t fully publish the piece until this spring.

As you’d expect from a transmission destined for a 450-plus-hp sports car, the new eight-speed slushbox features a high torque capacity (up to 738 lb-ft) and an overall ratio spread of 7.0, which enables short lower gears for better acceleration and taller higher gears for better highway fuel economy. The transmission, which GM refers to as the 8L90, will arrive for 2015, and we’ll get more details closer to then, as well as when SAE publishes the full tech paper in April.